Data prep considerations for analytics, Part 2
.@philsimon continues his series on data prep and anlytics.
Uncategorized
A map of Zika cases in the US
As Zika starts spreading into the US, it will be important to have a way to track it. Therefore I wrote some SAS code to pull the latest data from the CDC website, and plot it on a map... But before we get into the details of my map, I
„Viya“ la revolución! SAS Viya krempelt alles um
Neulich saß ich am Schreibtisch und brütete über einer Fragestellung einer meiner Kunden. In Gedanken versunken überprüfte ich meine Lösungsansätze, bis plötzlich ein Kollege in der Tür stand und mich fragte: „Was machst du da?“ „Nachdenken“, war meine Antwort. „Junge“, sagte der Kollege spontan, „du musst nicht nachdenken, sondern vordenken!“
Halley's method for finding roots
Edmond Halley (1656-1742) is best known for computing the orbit and predicting the return of the short-period comet that bears his name. However, like many scientists of his era, he was involved in a variety of mathematical and scientific activities. One of his mathematical contributions is a numerical method for
Spatial econometric modeling using PROC SPATIALREG
In our previous post, Econometric and statistical methods for spatial data analysis, we discussed the importance of spatial data. For most people, understanding that importance is relatively easy because spatial data are often found in our daily lives and we are all accustomed to analyzing them. We can all relate to
Elektromobilität – ganz oder gar nicht digital
In einem vorherigen Blogpost bin ich darauf eingegangen, welche Möglichkeiten Elektromobilität bietet. Autos tauschen sich aus, wo die nächste Ladestation steht, was hinter der Kurve wartet, oder das Auto kann mit der Werkstatt in Kontakt treten, um einen Wartungstermin zu vereinbaren. Und darauf, wie sich ganze Geschäftsmodelle verändern: Der Automobilhersteller
Now is the time to get SAS certified
Yes, I read the baby books. I visited the websites. I swaddled a football. I was prepared. When my daughter came into the world last year there was a small comfort that I had done about all I could do to prepare for her arrival. I say a small comfort
It’s not fair…
Gender and race discrimination has been banned in most countries for many years, although gender did have specific exclusions for the insurance industry, where the risk for males and females could be shown to substantially different (e.g. females have a higher life expectancy than males). In the European Union (EU)
3 Steps to big data success with text analytics
A huge proportion of big data is unstructured text (such as client interactions, product reviews, call center logs, emails, blogs and tweets). Organizations starting to invest in advanced analytics often overlook the value text analytics could add to the process. But when data scientists or analysts get to work exploring
Clean-up woman: Part 2
In my last post, I talked about how data still needs to be cleaned up – and data strategy still needs to be re-evaluated – as we start to work with nontraditional databases and other new technologies. There are lots of ways to use these new platforms (like Hadoop). For example, many
Create an animation with the BY statement in PROC SGPLOT
It is easy to use PROC SGPLOT and BY-group processing to create an animated graph in SAS 9.4. Sanjay Matange previously discussed how to create an animated plot in SAS 9.4, but he used a macro loop to call PROC SGPLOT many times. It is often easier to use the
Big data, IoT and data warehouse?
It's the age of big data and the internet of things (IoT), but how will that change things for insurance companies? Do insurers still need to consider classic data warehouse concepts based on a relational data model? Or will all relevant data be stored in big data structures and thus
Business Forecasting book review in JBF
Book Review in Journal of Business Forecasting The Summer 2016 issue of Journal of Business Forecasting includes a book review of Business Forecasting: Practical Problems and Solutions. The review is by Simon Clarke, Group Director of Forecasting at The Coca-Cola Company. You may be familiar with Clarke's many previous contributions
Free POC, on the latest SAS technology, in your own office
Ever wanted to test out the latest SAS® technology on your own data, but lacked the time or administrative backing of IT to make that happen? Ever wanted to test drive Hadoop with your own data and SAS® but are lacking the support or skills to do that? If I piqued
If we didn't start the fire, then who did?
If you're into 1980s pop music, then I bet you love Billy Joel's song We Didn't Start the Fire. But do you know every word, and the significance of every reference? Let's use SAS software to create an interactive visualization that will help you fully understand this song! I first saw
The perfect classroom companion for teaching SAS
It’s back to school time again. If you’re working to get your lesson plans in place, we have something that might help you and your students - Exercises and Projects for The Little SAS Book. This book is perfect for instructors and students in a classroom setting, especially when used
Big data analytics had to come before IoT
You could say we've been working toward the internet of things (IoT) since computers were first invented. Look at how airplanes have changed from flying by wire to now, quite literally, flying by IoT (or connected plane). The connected car is another example of how big data analytics is the
What were your #FirstSevenLanguages?
My computer geek colleagues are boasting about their humble beginnings by sharing lists of their first seven programming languages. You can find these under the hashtag #FirstSevenLanguages. COBOLPL/1SASIFPSAPL370 AssemblerCSQLLisp#FirstSevenLanguages — Paul Kent (@hornpolish) August 16, 2016 From what I've seen of these lists, the programming languages that appear are very
Data prep considerations for analytics, Part 1
I'm hard-pressed to think of a trendier yet more amorphous term today than analytics. It seems that every organization wants to take advantage of analytics, but few really are doing that – at least to the extent possible. This topic interests me quite a bit, and I hope to explore
Recreate to Feel Great!
This week, we have a NEW author! Introducing Dany Losh, a Senior Manager at the RFC. Dany as enjoyed working at the RFC for over 25 years sharing her passion of recreation and fitness with SAS employees and currently manages our Recreation, Leisure, and On-Site Services Team. Today Dany is
The smooth bootstrap method in SAS
Last week I showed how to use the simple bootstrap to randomly resample from the data to create B bootstrap samples, each containing N observations. The simple bootstrap is equivalent to sampling from the empirical cumulative distribution function (ECDF) of the data. An alternative bootstrap technique is called the smooth
How can we help other foster care youth soar like Simone Biles?
Foster youth present a unique challenge to educators. Probably the most famous former foster care child in the world right now is Simone Biles, already one of the more formidable and successful athletes in the history of American sports. As a big fan of women’s gymnastics, Biles has thrilled me with her accomplishments.
The Demand Signal Management Proposition
"Tap into all your demand signals. Organize. Visualize. Analyze. Predict. Orchestrate. Optimize." The availability and collection of data are compelling companies to invest in demand signal management solutions to take advantage of the vast amount of information to support their planning processes. However, many have not gotten the return on
Female voters outnumber males in North Carolina
Since this is an election year, I've been scrutinizing the voter registration data. One thing that surprised me is there are more female voters registered in NC than males. I wondered if this was consistent across all 100 counties, and created some charts to help visualize the data... First I went
Last day -- Foresight Practitioner Conference $200 registration discount
Companies launch initiatives to upgrade or improve their sales & operations planning and demand planning processes all the time, but many fail to deliver the results they should. Has your forecasting operation fallen short of expectations? Do you struggle with "best practices" that seem incapable of producing accurate, useful results?
Data cataloging for data asset crowdsourcing
What does it really mean when we talk about the concept of a data asset? For the purposes of this discussion, let's say that a data asset is a manifestation of information that can be monetized. In my last post we explored how bringing many data artifacts together in a
Formats for p-values and odds ratios in SAS
Last week I showed some features of SAS formats, including the fact that you can use formats to bin a continuous variable without creating a new variable in the DATA step. During the discussion I mentioned that it can be confusing to look at the output of a formatted variable
How to Pokemon Go-to-Market
Has there ever been an app that’s captured the world’s imagination as quickly as Pokemon Go? The usage statistics are mind-blowing, and whether or not the world has reached “peak Pokemon Go” yet, this will doubtless be a short-lived fad. But this could be the app that brings augmented reality and
What's your stress score?
There's an old expression "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it" - and while that expression probably isn't universally true (as pointed out in this interesting article), I think having a way to quantify your stress could be useful. I recently read an interesting article about the Holmes-Rahe Life
How to send a text message with SAS
A colleague approached me with this very important business problem: Every Friday at SAS HQ, SAS cafe staff provides a breakfast goodie in our breakrooms. Often the supplied goodie is delicious, but sometimes it's more...well...healthy. I want to know whether I should eat my breakfast before I leave home on